Norges Bank Invests $2.50 Billion in Verizon Communications Inc. $VZ

Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 57,872,667 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $2,504,150,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 61.2% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 43,986 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,759,000 after acquiring an additional 16,704 shares in the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 150.1% during the first quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 23,387 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,061,000 after purchasing an additional 14,035 shares in the last quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 18.1% in the first quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. now owns 74,539 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,381,000 after purchasing an additional 11,427 shares during the period. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 47.9% in the first quarter. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft now owns 7,889 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $346,000 after purchasing an additional 2,555 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Natixis Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 24.4% in the first quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 2,515,930 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $114,123,000 after purchasing an additional 492,889 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VZ has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. BNP Paribas lowered Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. TD Cowen cut their target price on Verizon Communications from $56.00 to $51.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. BNP Paribas Exane lowered Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $44.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $44.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and thirteen have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verizon Communications currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:VZ opened at $40.90 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.74. The firm has a market cap of $172.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.35. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $41.02 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $42.45. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.58 and a fifty-two week high of $47.35.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.19 by $0.02. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 14.43% and a return on equity of 19.31%. The firm had revenue of $33.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $34.19 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.19 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $0.69 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 10th. This represents a $2.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.7%. This is a boost from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.68. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 58.97%.

About Verizon Communications

Verizon Communications Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of communications, technology, information, and entertainment products and services to consumers, businesses, and governmental entities worldwide. It operates in two segments, Verizon Consumer Group (Consumer) and Verizon Business Group (Business).